


Finding

by Para



Series: Heterodyne [5]
Category: Girl Genius
Genre: Gen, I'm still borrowing everyone's jagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-05-03 18:08:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5301554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Para/pseuds/Para
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moloch von Zinzer arrives!  He really, really wishes he hadn't.</p><p>(Title of this may change; I am not happy with it, but can't think of a better one yet.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding

**Author's Note:**

> [Radovana](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4676600/chapters/10892501) [Nikolayev](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4676600/chapters/12011681) still belongs to [Adiduck](http://archiveofourown.org/users/book_people/pseuds/adiduck), who is _still_ patiently correcting my characterization of their jägers.
> 
> (Gil is absent because Klaus sent him off somewhere, probably with Boris to learn about the management of a newly conquered town. Don't worry, he'll be back soon.)

The new Mistress had woken up early after spending most of the night building tiny clanks that, when finished, started building more, similar tiny clanks. None of them had any apparent purpose, and Rada had eventually called for another lady jäger to help watch them while the Mistress kept building. She got Kai, who settled in the opposite corner from Rada and eyed the clanks while spinning knives between her fingers. The clanks never did anything other than build more clanks, though.

The Mistress eventually fell properly asleep on a table as the sun rose, surrounded by tiny clanks. It might have been worth carrying her up to her bed, but young humans were supposed to be much more able to sleep anywhere, and Rada could already hear Judy beginning to make breakfast in the kitchen.

Rada was right; the Mistress woke up less than an hour later. She stretched, yawned, and blinked around the shop like she was surprised to find herself there, even though she’d done the exact same thing during her nap, and then picked up a clank as it wandered past. It dinged indignantly, kicking at the air, and she dropped it with an apologetic “oops! Sorry, sorry….”

“Hy dunno iffen hyu haff to apologize to hyu clanks, Meestress,” Rada said. The clank stomped the rest of the way across the table, delivering a pair of bolts to two more little clanks that were building yet another. The three proceeded to get into what looked like an argument over the bolts, until one hit another off the side of the table with a wrench, and the third began working on the half-built clank under the direction of the wrench holder.

It wasn’t clear whether the new Mistress had even heard Rada. She was watching the clanks. “What do they do?”

Rada was going to ignore the question, since she didn’t know and the new Mistress sounded like she was talking to herself more than asking anyone. Kai answered it instead. “Hyu haff been buildink dem all night, und dey all build more.”

The Mistress must be good at recognizing voices, because she didn’t look at Rada. Instead she glanced around until she spotted Kai, still idly flipping a knife around in a far corner, and immediately started blushing as she glanced down at herself. “Oh! I… uh, well, I’m dressed this time, so I guess it’s fine….”

Kai blinked, catching the knife and holding it still. Her tail twitched in confusion, then relaxed. “Hy’m a lady jäger, Mistress. Iz chust not dot obveeous.”

“Oh.” The new Mistress blinked. “Really?”

“Hy ken proove eet eef hyu vant,” Kai offered.

The new Mistress’s eyebrows pulled in in confusion. “You can?”

Rada should maybe warn her what Kai meant.

…Nah. She’d learn.

Kai’s shirt wasn’t quite all the way off when the new Mistress realized what she was doing, squeaked, and turned solid red all at once. Fairly typical human reaction time. “Ack! No no no that’s okay, I believe you!”

Kai paused, which might have actually made the new Mistress more red, then shrugged and started pulling her shirt back on. “Hokay.”

The Mistress was still blushing, and looking everywhere but at Kai. “Well… um… I guess, if the clanks aren’t doing anything, we can, uh, go inside?”

“Iz op to hyu, Meestress,” Rada said.

They went inside, and found Punch, Judy, the Baron, two of the Baron’s soldiers (who looked distinctly on edge), the three Generals from the Castle, and several other jägers crowded into the kitchen. That was plenty of protection, the new Mistress wasn’t likely to fall back asleep soon (and if she did, Kai could be her guard), so Rada hauled one of the other jägers there over to take her place (she’d mentored his mentor, and he stayed meekly where she put him) and slipped out while the Generals were greeting the new Mistress. She’d woken up before the last time the sun rose and not eaten or smoked in almost as long, and watching the newest Heterodyne build tiny clanks all night wasn’t really a tiring job, but she still wanted to fix all three of those issues.

There were a few hundred jägers covering most surfaces along the Mistress’s street, including in a few cases the street itself. Most weren’t doing much; sleeping, talking, wrestling, making bets or gambling while they waited to catch sight of the new Heterodyne. No humans—in fact, nothing living that wasn’t a jäger—were visible, though they must live on the street. Rada snorted, and went to look for somewhere to sleep.

She made it three steps before a jäger landed next to her, and one more before four others had followed him. Rada chose to slant an impatient look at Toma, since he was the first to land.

He ignored it entirely. “Hyu vere vith de Heterodyne. Vot iz she like?”

Rada idly contemplated whether she hadn’t recently been scary enough in his vicinity, or if the Heterodyne was just outweighing her in importance at the moment. Probably the second. “Iz a keed, und a schpark.” Changing fast; she’d been scared of the jägers back in the Tyrant’s lab, Rada had heard. She hadn’t been worse than cautious by the time Rada traded into the unit guarding her on the way to her house, and not even that by the end of the day. “Schpent all night buildink leedle clenks.”

“Vot for?” Linas asked.

Rada shrugged as she walked. “Buildink more clenks.”

Toma’s nose wrinkled. “Clenks dot build clenks? For breaktru?”

“Miz Judy sez is not breakthrough, dot vas years und years ago,” Petru said. Hrm, he’d been with the Heterodyne’s guards yesterday; maybe he’d left to give the Generals space. Miss Judy’s kitchen wasn’t very large.

“Bot den vhy dun ve hear ov her? Breaktru iz not _qviet_ ,” Toma said.

“Miz Judy sez Master Barry mek sumting dot kept her qviet so de Other ken’t find her, und put eet in a locket, den de locket got schtolen.”

There was a quiet, choked sound from an alley. Rada might have still been a little on edge from the discovery of a Heterodyne after so many years, because she whirled and lunged without thinking.

The man went down with one hit; he staggered backwards a few steps, dropping something that clinked and gleamed like metal on the cobblestones before falling on his back. Rada didn’t even have to hit him a second time to make him fall. She planted a foot in his gut, and leaned over with teeth bared, keeping an eye on his hands as she crouched over him. He wheezed as the other four followed, Petru scooping the thing he’d dropped up off the ground and examining it while the rest grinned down at the man. Other jägers started responding to the commotion, jumping across roofs or down to the street to come see.

“Vell, hallo,” Toma said over Rada’s shoulder. “Ve heffen’t seen a human on dis street moch. Vot vas hyu doink here?”

The man gulped, and seemed otherwise frozen, staring up at the gleaming fangs above him in obvious terror. “Just—uh—just… lookin’ for someone.”

“Hyu know,” Petru said, in the fake casual tone that meant something interesting, “iz eenterestink dot diz locket looks zo moch like de vun hour Mistress chust lost.”

It would be stupid to look away from the man she was pinning, even if he was a complete wimp. Rada thought she could make a decent guess what the man had dropped anyway.

“Ho, vell,” Toma said. “Mebbe ve ken help hyu find sumvun, yah?”

“That’s—er—not—I mean, you don’t—”

This was getting annoying. Rada leaned on the foot in his gut a bit. “Schot op.” She stepped off of him as he wheezed again, hauled him up and twisted his arms behind his back. He smelled terrified and still didn’t make any attempt to stop her. Hrmph. Boring.

They marched him back to the new Mistress’s house, surrounded by leering grins from almost every jäger on the street that wasn’t still asleep. No one wanted to get far away from the new Heterodyne, but there wasn’t much to actually do for those who weren’t in the house.

Toma knocked, but didn’t wait for a response before throwing the door open. The man they’d caught was still cringing as they pushed him through a room and into the kitchen’s doorway.

The Mistress turned, confused, and then immediately became angry, jumping up from her seat. “You!”

“Ve find him schneakink around near here,” Toma said.

“Und he hed dis,” Petru added, holding up the thing the man had dropped.

“My locket!”

Rada chuckled in the man’s ear and he twitched. “Vell now hyu iz in trouble.”

“He mugged me! He stole my locket! Well… I guess that’s been a good thing, but….” The Mistress’s eyes narrowed on the man. “Him _and_ his friend. Where’s _he_?”

The man bristled. Huh. “You already took care of him, didn’t you?” he snapped. Rada shoved his arms a bit higher and he cringed again.

“What are you talking about?” the Mistress demanded. “He hit me and took my locket, and you think _I’ve_ done something to _him_?” She sounded angry more than anything else.

The man managed to sound resentful even while he looked and smelled terrified. It was the most impressive thing he’d managed so far. “You _killed_ him!”

“I did not!”

“Perhaps,” the Baron said mildly, “there may be a calmer way to sort this out?”

The man turned his head in the Baron’s direction, and went white.

The Mistress was still glaring at the man, but folded her arms and sat down with a huff.

The Baron looked at Rada. “I don’t think he’ll be causing any trouble now if you let him go,” he said, pointed.

Rada glanced at the Generals; General Zog shook his head. The Mistress looked annoyed at the suggestion (or maybe just the man’s existence) too, so Rada shook her head.

The Baron, apparently, knew when he wouldn’t win an argument. He sighed, and turned toward the new Mistress. “If you could explain what happened in order, please, Miss Heterodyne?”

The man made another choked sound. Rada made a point of chucking in his ear again.

The new Mistress’s explanation was interspersed with glares in the man’s direction, and almost turned into a rant at the end before the Baron cut her off. That was irritating; Rada would have enjoyed hearing a proper Heterodyne rant again. Though if the new Mistress _could_ be cut off, she must not have been really angry, so it would have been a mild one anyway.

The man’s story put much more emphasis on how it was his brother that had assaulted and stolen from the Mistress, but didn’t technically disagree with her, and added that his brother had gotten sick and died from the Mistress’s locket. Which was terrible logic; just because something was made by a spark didn’t mean it would kill people. That it was made by a Heterodyne spark normally would have made it much more likely, except that the Heterodyne spark who made it was Master Barry.

The Baron apparently thought it was reasonable, as he held a hand out toward Petru. “If I could see the locket?”

Petru, pointedly, handed the locket to the new Mistress. She handed it to the Baron. The Baron looked vaguely put upon, but took and opened it.

He paused, then deliberately closed the locket again. “Those… are certainly Bill and Lucrezia. Not that there was any doubt left.” He turned it over, and looked at the back. “Punch, do you have any miniature screwdrivers?” He glanced, belatedly, at the new Mistress. “Assuming I have your permission to open this up, of course, Miss Heterodyne.”

“Oh—well, yes. I’d like to know what it does, too.” The new Mistress was leaning over the table (Judy patiently moved a plate out of the way of her arm), peering at the locket with the beginning of a spark fugue in her eyes.

Punch did have miniature screwdrivers, and miniatures of many other tools as well. He fetched them while Judy cleared half the table off, and soon the Baron and the Mistress had her locket spread out on the table while the Baron explained principles that Master Barry liked to use in his work to the new Mistress, and she heterodyned, occasionally pointing out connections that the Baron had to frown and stare at before nodding to.

“Vell, dis iz fameeliar,” Rada said conversationally to the man she was still holding. He flinched just from her voice. Hah. “Ov cawse, usually vhen ennyvun schtole from her grandfadder, he put _dem_ on de table. Hy guess iz time schtill, und dey vouldn’t vant hyu blood stickink op de gears….”

“Rada, that’s mean,” Judy said.

“Yah.”

“You should stop.”

“Hy iz _jägerkin_.”

Judy sighed.

Eventually the Mistress and the Baron started reassembling the locket’s pieces. “It’s difficult to be sure without more tests, but it appears that your locket was designed to suppress the spark by suppressing certain brain activity,” the Baron said. “If that’s the case, it could be that in absence of a spark, the locket targeted similar or all brain activity, and after a time shut the brain down entirely.”

“Hmm.” The Mistress was still fuguing slightly, but coming down from it. “So it probably did kill him.”

“Most likely,” the Baron agreed as he closed the locket back up and turned to the man. “Although it sounds like a cleaner death than thieves usually meet in Beetleburg.” The man winced again. “And now we seem to have a jurisdictional issue.”

The Mistress’s eyebrows pulled together again. “We do?”

The Baron raised an eyebrow, but didn’t sound critical. “You could claim Heterodyne laws take priority, as it was your locket that was stolen.” Rada grinned, and pressed her claws a little more firmly against the man’s arms since he couldn’t see her. “Beetleburg could claim the same, as the crime took place here. And Wulfenbach can take over justice in any of my subject states… though I usually do not,” the Baron added.

“Oh.” The Mistress eyed the man, considering. “What are Heterodyne laws, then?”

“Voteffer hyu say,” General Krizhan said.

“…Oh.” The Mistress brushed her hair back. “Are there, um, traditions? Or something?”

“Eef hyu dun vant him for ennyting, ve ken tek care ov him,” Toma offered.

“He means ‘kill him,’” Judy said wryly. Toma grinned.

The new Mistress looked like she was considering it for a moment, then sighed. The Baron looked subtly relieved as she did. “No, don’t kill him. I guess he… technically didn’t steal it, himself.” She sounded reluctant to say it, and glared at the man again.

The man sighed, and didn’t quite go limp in Rada’s hold. She shook him. “Hyu dun sound verra _grateful_.”

“Thank you! Er. Lady Heterodyne.” He swallowed. “I, uh, am grateful. Really. Very grateful.”

Well, at least he responded quickly. Rada snorted.

The Baron focused on the man, frowning slightly. “That’s a D’Omas uniform.”

The man cringed again. It was getting ridiculous. “Er. Yes, sir. Herr Baron.”

“I thought I’d made my policy on enemy soldiers quite common knowledge already.”

“Didn’t get a chance to surrender, Herr Baron,” the man muttered, managing to sound sullen about it. “We weren’t at the battle, and didn’t run into any of your people until this cr—this woman who just shot the gunship as soon as she showed up.”

The Baron sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Bang. Of course.” He opened his eyes again and frowned at the man. “But you intended to surrender.”

“Er….” The man had somehow gotten comfortable enough with being held to fidget. Rada tried to think of better ways to scare him now that he knew she couldn’t kill him, and in the meantime pressed her claws into his arm again. He jumped as he started bleeding, and then stayed still. Improvement. “We were headin’ toward Paris, actually, but if we’d had the choice….”

“I see.” The Baron turned toward the new Mistress. “If you have no objections, then, I will take… responsibility for him.”

The new Mistress gave the man a look that was still annoyed with his existence, then turned away. “So long as _I_ don’t see him again I don’t care,” she declared.

“I believe that can be arranged,” the Baron said dryly. He gestured his soldiers forward. “Take him to the recruitment ship.”

Rada let the man go when the soldiers were close enough to take him. They didn’t, unfortunately; only stood on either side of him as he shook his arms out. Rada made a point of grinning as he turned around. He flinched when he saw her, and hurried out of the house with the Wulfenbach soldiers.

Rada followed them out, but none of the three looked behind them, so that was boring. Toma and Linas were following, so she dropped back and began eyeing the roofs for a decent place to sleep.

Instead, of course, she was surrounded by another bunch of jägers that wanted to hear about the Heterodyne. Growling didn’t make them go away, but did make Radu (and then the others) offer to buy her food as long as she was telling them about the Heterodyne. Rada hadn’t eaten in almost as long as she hadn’t slept, so she decided that was acceptable and spent an hour eating free food and describing their new Mistress before finally getting to sleep.

(She woke up a few hours later craving a cigar, of course, so she stole one off a younger jäger. It tasted terrible, and Rada informed him of everything wrong with it as she smoked.)

(It was worth it. She had a Heterodyne again.)


End file.
